Mentally preparing for getting an iPhone...

I am getting ready to get an iPhone...so I have been surfing and came across the following...not quite about the iPhone but interesting nonetheless...

From WiseGeek:

"Stewardesses" is perhaps the longest common word that can be typoed with only your left hand. If you consider more obscure words, however, you'll find that "aftercataracts" and "tesseradecades," are the longest words at 14 characters. Using only your right hand, the longest word you can type is "lollipop" but if you permit the use of dashes, then "Johnny-Jump-Up" — a type of flower — becomes the longest word you can type with only the right hand. Other words that you can type only with your left hand are "retweet," "gazette," "eraser," and "seatbelt." Other right hand words include "homonym," "unholy," "polyp," and "monopoly."

Other word oddities:
The longest word that you can type with alternating hands is "leptothricosis," which is an obsolete term for those diseases caused by the bacteria Leptothrix.

The only two English words with three consecutive sets of double letters are "bookkeeping" and "bookkeeper."

"Queueing" is the only word with five consecutive vowels; the word with the most consonants in a row is "latchstring."

I always liked homonyms :)....

News Headline and Comment

I saw a headline this morning: "Michigan Announces $25 Million Settlement for Alleged Price Fixing Conspiracy."

Nobody is ever going to accuse our company of price fixing!

We have worked for 10 years to lower the price of natural and organic foods.

I remember when I started my natural food distributing business back in the late 70s. There were 4 large natural food distributors in Los Angeles. They all worked on the exact same 25% profit margin. They all had the exact same discount structure. The only difference in their pricing, was one of them rounded their prices to the nearest half or whole cent, and the others charged the exact price (.333 cents for something versus rounding to .335).

My goal then - as it is now - is to sell our products at a small profit. We don't look at other companies' pricing and say, "wow, we could charge double the price like they do." We have been the discounters, the renegades, the people that "ruin the industry's profit margins" - and we're proud of it.

Travel

The next 5 weeks find me out on the toad...

This week, I head to Seattle for the Natural Foods Association Northwest show.

Next week, is a 3 part trip....to Minnesota to visit a pickle producer, then to Appleton for a visit at our Organic Corn cannery....ending up in Chicago with a distributor visit.

The following week is a trip to Idaho to see a bean plant.

Then the next week is a trip to New Mexico to visit a customer in Albuquerque, see a chiles plant in Deming, fly out of El Paso into Los Angeles for a couple more vendor meetings, then home...

And finally, the week of October 11th is Boston and Expo East.

So yes, I am back to traveling a lot and racking up those United Frequent Flyer miles and Marriott points :)

Jody's Mom's 89th Birthday

September 9th was Jody's Mom's 89th Birthday. Jody and Pearl traveled back to Pa to help her mom celebrate...they picked up a few of Mom's friends and all went out to Olive Garden to celebrate. On the right are Jody, Jody's Mom and Pearl. On the left are the friends whose names I don't know :). A good time was had by all...

More cats

Dear Gary and Jody

I use the Natural Value Pate Style Tuna and Chicken Dinner
cat food (UPC code 706173500117) as the only way of getting a
critical medicine into my cat. I mix the medicine in the cat food,
and he eats it. I have tried other flavors and other brands of cat
food, and other ways to try to get the medicine in him, but this is
the only successful way, and the only one he will eat with
the medicine.


I have four Siberian cats, the one needing the medicine is Kochko,
which means LOVE in Russian. The others are named Maksim, Sasha
and Mischa, also all Russian names. ALL of them LOVE your cat food
and will not eat any other canned cat food.

Sasha, a love sponge! Extremely affectionate.
Maksim (the Russian name for Maximillian).
Mischa…By far, one of the cutest and sweetest kitties I have ever known.

New BPA free can lining announced

ADM adds BPA alternative to product line

August 16th, 2010

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) today announced that it has begun offering isosorbide under its line of Evolution Chemicals. Isosorbide is an industrial ingredient made from corn that is a potential alternative to the petroleum-based chemical Bisphenol A in plastics and other applications. ADM is the first company in North America to offer renewable isosorbide on a commercial scale.
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is used in the manufacture of plastics and is present in many products including eyeglass lenses, sports equipment and CDs and DVDs. Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health have expressed concern about the potential health effects associated with BPA.

“Today more than ever, people are seeking both consumer and industrial products that are safe and renewable,” said Robert Broomham, business director, ADM Industrial Chemicals. “Isosorbide offers manufacturers a renewable alternative to the traditional chemicals found in many products.”

Isosorbide is a versatile ingredient with wide range of applications. It can be used in polyesters for inks, toners, powder coatings, packaging and durable goods; polyurethanes for foams and coatings; polycarbonates for durable goods and optical media; epoxy resins for paints; and detergents, surfactants and additives for personal care and consumer products.

“With increased interest in environmental improvement, we see growing opportunity to expand our portfolio of renewable industrial products,” said Broomham. “ADM’s research and development expertise and our access to agricultural feedstocks enable us to develop innovative ingredients that can serve as replacements for traditional chemicals.”

So after reading this press release, I asked one of my manufacturers about this and received this response from their can manufacturer:


"...This chemical is in its infancy. It is on the front end of the testing/commercialization time-line. We are studying it. However, it has never been put in a can lining. It hasn’t been tested on shelf-life or flavor issues. This is one of many chemicals of its kind that have hit the market. They all need to go through the testing process."

Progress often comes in slow steps...

Travel

On the road again...
Last week, I visited the Lakeside plant in Owatonna, MN (you can look it up on the map and they even have a Starbucks!!!).

That plant is where they run our Natural Value Organic Beans.

I managed to get a picture outside in front of the truck...